Poynter’s Roy Peter Clark said the word “minorities” may be going through a “semantic shift” — a change in the associations and meanings of words over time. “Sometimes the changes in a word take centuries,” Clark told me. “Other times it can happen very quickly.”

The word “girl,” for example, used to refer to a young person of either gender. The definition of “colored” has also shifted.

“The term ‘colored’ was used for a long time to designate African Americans until it was deemed offensive. And it only really referred to ‘black’ people,” Clark said. “Now we have ‘persons of color,’ which seems to be a synonym for non-white. As the population changes, a term like ‘person of color’ rather than ‘minority’ might be more appropriate.”

On its “About” page, the Asian American Journalists Association explains: “AAJA uses the term ‘Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders’ to embrace all Americans — both citizens and residents — who self-identify with one or more of the three dozen nationalities and ethnic groups in East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East and the Pacific Islands. We use this term to refer to our communities at large, as well as to our membership, which includes representatives from all these regions.”

It is difficult to theorize or surmise what is going on in a particular culture if one is not imbued with understanding the context of that culture. Still, Yojana Sharma’s BBC report about Hong Kong’s star tutors makes moi theorize that the families paying the hefty bill are not satisfied with being “minority” anythings.

Sharma reports in BBC article, Meet the ‘tutor kings and queens’ about the educators who are accorded as much adulation and status as rock stars in Hong Kong:

They strike glamorous poses in posters in shopping malls and on the sides of buses.

But they are not movie stars or supermodels: they are Hong Kong’s A-list “tutor kings” and “tutor queens”, offering pupils a chance to improve mediocre grades.

In Hong Kong’s consumer culture, looks sell. Celebrity tutors in their sophisticated hair-dos and designer trappings are treated like idols by their young fans who flock to their classes.

And they have earnings to match – some have become millionaires and appear regularly on television shows.

“If you want to be a top tutor, it definitely helps if you are young and attractive. Students look at your appearance,” said Kelly Mok, 26, a “tutor queen” at King’s Glory, one of Hong Kong’s largest tutorial establishments.

Her designer clothes and accessories are not just for the billboards; it’s how she likes to dress outside classes. But she is also careful to add that she wouldn’t be in such high demand if she could not deliver top grades in her subject,

Richard Eng from Beacon College is often credited with being the first of Hong Kong’s “star tutors”. A former secondary school teacher, he says he got the idea after he featured in photographs advertising his sister, a performance artist.

“In school all the teachers look the same, there’s no excitement,” he said.

Richard Eng has brought a show business approach to the world of improving exam grades

His own image appears on special ring-binders and folders containing study tips, or pens which harbour a pull-out scroll with his picture and other gifts. Such items became so sought after that they propelled him to near-rock star status among young people.

The celebrity tutor phenomenon is a result of the huge growth in out-of-school tutoring in Asia.

It is fuelled by highly pressured examination systems and ambitious parents wanting their children to secure places at top universities and high-status secondary schools.

In societies where success is equated with good exam results, parental anxiety converts into a “steady stream of revenue” for tutoring establishments, according to a study by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

The tutoring industry, or “shadow education” as the ADB calls it, has become very widespread in Asia, fed by the growth in universities and the rising proportion of school leavers aiming for university.

Hong Kong University’s professor Mark Bray, one of the authors of the ADB study, said a staggering 72% of final-year school students in Hong Kong now go to private tutors.

Richer families have always paid for individual tutoring, but the star tutors offer exam tips and revision notes to the less well-off, studying in groups of over 100.

‘Getting an edge’

It’s not just Hong Kong. Tutoring has “spread and intensified in Asia and become more commercialised,” said professor Bray. In South Korea, 90% of primary school children attend such classes.

Forget the elbow patches, tutor Kelly Mok teaches English with style

In South Korea, Thailand, Sri Lanka and India, tutorial schools use star tutors to attract even more students. “They have found a way to appeal to young people and pull them in. They create a buzz,” he said.

“We had this phenomenon of star tutors in Kota as well,” said Pramod Maheshwari, chief executive of Career Point Coaching School in Kota, Rajasthan, India, a city of residential tutorial colleges which attract students from all over the country.

“It can give you an edge.” But ultimately, he says, expansion of tutoring is driven not by personalities but by “the inefficiency of the school system”.

“Across India, students’ education level is not up to the mark, and millions are preparing for competitive college examinations. It is a huge market,” said Mr Maheshwari.

In China, where private tutorial schools were unknown until the economy opened up in the 1990s, New Oriental Education and Technology has grown to become one of the largest tutoring schools in Asia with around 2.4 million students this year.

It boasts 17,600 teachers in 49 cities and an online network of over 7.8 million users.

Listed on the New York stock exchange since 2006, its founder Michael Yu (also known as Yu Minhong), became a multi-millionaire on the back of his blend of rote learning exercises, stand-up comedy and motivational speeches.

A man from a humble background, who had become an English teacher at Peking University, Mr Yu used the Hong Kong model of employing star tutors to prepare students for tests for universities abroad.

Extensive tutoring is sometimes seen as contributing to East Asian countries’ high performance in international school comparisons, particularly in mathematics. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20085558

One person does not speaks for a group, but members of a group can often provide useful insight about the group.

One of the most central features of a culture are its values. Values are the standards by which one may judge the difference between good and bad, and the right and wrong things to do. Though some values are universally shared among all cultures, it is the contrast and differences in values of different cultures that can account for the interactions and perceptions that occur between different cultures.

Traditional values are a common thread among individuals in a culture. Stereotyping comes about because of common behavior patterns that are based on common values, and distortion and misperception can come about as a result of misunderstandings of those values. Stereotyping can also be dangerous because people are individuals with their own values which may vary a great deal from the traditional ideal. Values can vary quite a bit depending upon one’s generation, class, education, origin, among other factors. For example, there is considerable difference in what might be called “traditional” and “modern” American values.

Although each distinct Asian culture actually has its own set of values, they all share a common core, which is probably best documented in the Japanese and Chinese traditions, and by philosophers such as Confucius, whose writings had considerable influence throughout Asia. In the Asian American experience, these values interact with what might be called simply “western” or “Caucasian” values, but if one contrasts the values of America with those of Europe, it can be seen that these are really “Modern American” values that provide the best contrasts.

Asian values are very much inter-related. They all support the view of the individual as being a part of a much larger group or family, and place great importance on the well-being of the group, even at the expense of the individual. American values, on the other hand emphasize the importance of the well-being of the individual, and stresses independence and individual initiative. Although it may seem that values such as education, family, and hard work are shared between cultures, these values manifest themselves quite differently in the two cultures.

Some Asian values are so important that some of the cultures, especially the Japanese have given them names of their own, and are used commonly. Here is a list of some of the most outstanding values:

Ie (japanese) – The family as a basic unit of social organization, and as a pattern for the structure of society as a whole.

Education – The whole process of child rearing and education as a means of perpetuating society, and of attaining position within society.

Enyo (japanese) – The conscious use of silence, reserve in manner.

Han (chinese) Conformity, and the suppression of individual attriputes such as talen, anger, or wealth which might disrupt group harmony. (Chinese)

Amae (japanese) – To depend and presume upon the benevolence of others. A deep bonding in human relationships between one who is responsible for another, and one who must depend on another.

Gaman (japanese) – Endurance, sticking it out at all costs. Self-sacrifice for the sake of others.

Tui Lien (chinese) – Loss face, shame. The final standard as to how well one lives up to these values.

Family and Education

Probaly the most notable aspect of the modern “Asian Model Minority”­stereotype is that of the academic overachiever. A number of asian students have done conspicuously well in terms of test scores, gifted student programs, admissions to prestigious schools, academic awards, and in classical music. Though obviously not all Asians fit this pattern, this trend can be attributed primarily to the basic notion of the family, and the central role that education plays in the family.

Great importance is placed on child rearing, and education is a funda­mental aspect of this. Asian parents are more likely to spend much more time with their children, and drive them harder, sometimes even at the expense of their personal time and ambitions of the parents themselves. Though Americans might consider Asian parents to be dominating, parents in turn are expected to give children all the support they can.

While it would no be unusual for an American parent to hire a babysitter to watch the kids while they go out, or expect their children to put them­selves through college lest the parents sacrifice their own stand of living, this is much less likely in an Asian family. Living in an extended family is not unusual, and filial piety, respect for parents is a very important principle.

Unlike the youth orientation in American culture, age and position are most highly respected. The Asian family has within it a heirarchy which is a mirror of the structure of society as whole. For example, the parent child relationship is carried further on to ruler and ruled, employer and employee. Education is the most valued way of achieving position, an success in education is viewed as an act of filial piety. In imperial times, examinations were the only way to achieve position in China. Even in America, education is seen as a key to social mobility, and economic opportunity. Education for their children was a major reason why many immigrants came to America from Asia.http://www.asianweek.com/2012/04/28/introduction-to-basic-asian-values/

There is no such thing as a “model minority” and getting rid of this myth will allow educators to focus on the needs of the individual student. Calling ethnic groups “minorities” is really a misnomer. According to Frank Bass’ Bloomberg article, Nonwhite U.S. Births Become the Majority for First Time:

Minority babies outnumbered white newborns in 2011 for the first time in U.S. history, the latest milestone in a demographic shift that’s transforming the nation.

Not that long ago before the 1990s, Asians were pretty reliably Republican, and until recently were still only slightly more Democratic than whites. This exit poll shows that Asians are 4 times more likely than whites to favor Democrats, the same as for Hispanics.

Muslims prefer Obama by 10 to 1, which seems to show they consider Barack to be one of their own even if he's been reluctant to run as a friend of Muslims. The most supportive group are the Blacks, which if you compare to the white ratio of just 70%, come out as 23 times more likely to favor Obama.

Only the Israelis favored Romney by more than white Americans, which indicates that Israelis are certainly not convinced of Obama's claims that he is as true and loyal friend of Israel as he is of the Palestineans.

Most liberal religions after Muslims was Jewish and non-Religions, Catholics were about evenly split as I've noted they are pretty close to average American in anything, while Protestants who seem to weigh more the conservative than the liberal ones went for Romney, even they think he belongs to a weird Mormon cult religion, at least it's a conservative one instead of Obama's fake Black Liberation Theology.

Voting Patterns 1992-1994

Now I've tracked down exit polls by race going back to 1992 to see where the shifts are. I have a different way a tracking. First I compute the Democrat/ Republican ratio for each group. Then I divide by the rate for whites, so we have an instant measure of which groups are more likely to favor democrats so that 1.0 would be same as whites, and 2.0 would be twice as much.

What the data shows is that whites have been shifting from an even 1.0 in 1992 to 2/3 favoring Republican this year.

Asians used to favor Republicans, but then were about the same, and flipped for Democrats starting with Gore in 2000, with the latest election 4 times more Democratic than the whites, about as liberal as the Hispanics. I was somehow under the impression that Asians were still pretty close to whites, but that hasn't been the case since 1996.

Hispanics have always favored Democrats, but have grown from 2.5 to 4 times

Blacks historically were 10 times more democratic, but this increased to a factor of 24-30 with Obama

by Paul Taylor and D’Vera Cohn which predicts that non-white minorities will be a majority by 2050. They are currently 37% of population but 28% of the votes.

Now it common wisdom that minorities don't vote at the same rate as whites, but the reality is that since the civil rights era, not only literacy rates for blacks approached that of whites, but the voting rate is about the same, with white voters only 14% above their population, and blacks 8% above. The TWO groups that vote at 0.5 or 1/2 are the Hispanics and Asians that are largely immigrant, so the major problem there are the large populations of immigrants who are not citizens eligible to vote:

Monday, November 05, 2012

Sunday, November 04, 2012

I voted in MN this time, but here is a quick rundown for folks back home from a GOP standpoint, if you are a democrat, you can usually just vote the reverse position unless you happen to like the GOP candidate.

A special hello to Dawn McCravey who was a great Bothell parent and school board president who always fought for the parents and kids, and not for whatever crazy programs the school administration wanted to have the board rubber stamp, and especially get rid of silly math.

Referendum 74 - Concerning same sex marriage - Legalizes same sex marriage. An emotional issue but one with far reaching implecations. See Clear Fog Blog for several posts on same sex marriage and homosexuality. Vote Rejected

Initiative 1185 - Requires super majority for legislature to pass tax or fee increases. Initiatives can be changed by the legislature after two years. I-1185 renews an existing initiative that is approaching its two year life. See News TribuneVote Yes

Initiative 1240 - Authorizes 40 public charter schools in the state over five years. Vote Yes

Senate Joint Resolution 8221 - Implements recommendations of the Commission on State Debt. This SJR would amend the state constitution to lower the debt limit of the state from 9% to 8% and change the base for computation. Vote Approved

Senate Joint Resolution 8223 - This SJR amends the state constituion to allow the University of Washington and Washington State University to invest some of its funds in private companies. Currently, only state funds for pensions, developmentally disabled and industrial insurance are allowed to do this.Vote Approved

State Advisory Votes -

These are non binding votes required anytime the legislature votes to increase taxes or fees.

House Bill 2590 - Extends the existance of the Pollution Liability Agency which is funded by a fee on sellers of certain petroleum products. Vote Maintained

Initiative Measure No. 1185 concerns tax and fee increases imposed by state government. This measure would restate existing statutory requirements that legislative actions raising taxes must be approved by two-thirds legislative majorities or receive voter approval, and that new or increased fees require majority legislative approval. Should this measure be enacted into law?

Initiative Measure No. 1240 concerns creation of a public charter school system. This measure would authorize up to forty publicly-funded charter schools open to all students, operated through approved, nonreligious, nonprofit organizations, with government oversight; and modify certain laws applicable to them as public schools. Should this measure be enacted into law?

[ ] Yes[ ] No x GOP does not endorse. Mostly rich people pushing for this, not ordinary people

The legislature passed Engrossed Substitute Senate Bill 6239 concerning marriage for same-sex couples, modified domestic-partnership law, and religious freedom, and voters have filed a sufficient referendum petition on this bill. This bill would allow same-sex couples to marry, preserve domestic partnerships only for seniors, and preserve the right of clergy or religious organizations to refuse to perform, recognize, or accommodate any marriage ceremony. Should this bill be:

Initiative Measure No. 502 concerns marijuana. This measure would license and regulate marijuana production, distribution, and possession for persons over twenty-one; remove state-law criminal and civil penalties for activities that it authorizes; tax marijuana sales; and earmark marijuana-related revenues. Should this measure be enacted into law?

The Legislature has proposed a constitutional amendment on implementing the Commission on State Debt recommendations regarding Washington's debt limit. This amendment would, starting July 1, 2014, phase-down the debt limit percentage in three steps from nine to eight percent and modify the calculation date, calculation period, and the term general state revenues. Should this constitutional amendment be:

The Legislature has proposed a constitutional amendment on investments by the University of Washington and Washington State University. This amendment would create an exception to constitutional restrictions on investing public funds by allowing these universities to invest specified public funds as authorized by the legislature, including in private companies or stock. Should this constitutional amendment be:

The legislature eliminated, without a vote of the people, a business and occupation tax deduction for certain financial institutions' interest on residential loans, costing $170,000,000, in its first ten years, for government spending. This tax increase should be:

The legislature extended, without a vote of the people, expiration of a tax on possession of petroleum products and reduced the tax rate, costing $24,000,000, in its first ten years, for government spending. This tax increase should be: